Trading Desk - Con Edison Communications to Launch Collocation with LighTrade

Posted: 04/2001

Trading Desk

Con Edison Communications to Launch Collocation with LighTrade
By Bruce Christian

LighTrade (www.lightrade.com), a provider of neutral, fully automated bandwidth "pooling points," is slated to become the first major tenant of Consolidated Edison Communications Inc.'s (www.electricfiber.com) collocation facility in Manhattan, N.Y.

The Con Edison facility, which will be located at 111 Eighth Ave., will house equipment to connect telecommunications and Internet service providers with larger networks, such as the one Con Edison is building.

The new collocation site will occupy 22,000 square feet. Along with unencumbered access to LighTrade's pooling points, which allow local and long-haul carriers to switch bandwidth in minutes rather than months, the site will offer services to broadband service providers, and secure and reliable interconnections to Con Edison's metropolitan fiber optic network and its planned national and international networks.

Con Edison, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc. (www.conedison.com), began moving into the telecommunications space about 18 months ago, says Chris Metaxas, the company's vice president of sales and business development.

"We have a target of 40 buildings by July that will be lit in the Manhattan marketplace," Metaxas says. "We will serve other carriers, so we will be a carrier's carrier."

The buildings will include telecom and commercial buildings, major PoPs and COs.

"Each of the buildings will provide SONET services and will have DWDM capabilities," Metaxas says, adding that by the end of the third quarter, Con Edison wants to provide fast Ethernet service as well.

The new telecom company has ambitious plans, as it will target 19 cities in the Northeast within the next couple of years. New York is the grand prize.

Con Edison chose LighTrade as a strategic partner because "they also are a new player, so we are looking to help each other and grow our businesses. Plus, LighTrade has a focused business model, and they don't have a vested interest in the trade or arbitrage."

Still, Metaxas says he would like to have alliances with other companies that provide pooling points.

LighTrade's president and CEO, Ted Pierson, adds, "Con Edison Communications' last-mile strategy--connecting telecommunications and Internet service providers to hundreds of buildings in New York--will mean a great deal to our future customers."

LighTrade provides real-time interconnection and QoS monitoring services for the delivery of telecommunications capacity sold through any means.

The collocation facility will:

* Provide ISPs and other Internet-focused businesses with access services more quickly and efficiently;

* Expand network reach for CLECs and other carriers;

* Offer facilities-based services with a minimal investment to telecommunication service and value-added service providers; and

* Offer Con Edison's partners secure cabinet space, climate-controlled environment, an uninterrupted power supply with backup diesel generators and a dry fire suppression system.